Gettin' Smart

My friend started to tell me about how she's 'unschooling' her daughter. It's not a hard concept to practice, but it's harder to explain it. Everyone has their own definition of it.
Filip is 2 1/2, which means he is half-way to school age. This method of teaching is having more of an appeal to me than regular school, or normal home-school methods.

Even for toddlers, there are tons of age-appropriate activities available. I took him to a story-time at the library. It seems we're supposed to do things like this to 'socialize' our kids and give them 'stimulation'. I have no motivation to do stuff like this for my son. I thought, I'm just being lazy, so I made myself go. Actually, we just happened to be at the library when it started, so we sat in.
The kids there all seemed to like the program, they got to listen to a story, and sing some songs. There was nothing wrong with it, but the same question keeps popping into my head:"Why?"

Why teach your kids songs you hate, because they're kid songs? Why do you need a felt board to teach them what kind of animals live on a farm? Why do we make them imagine the things we feel are appropriate for them to imagine? Why do we need annoying, fictitious charactors to be our kids' role models in washing their hands and having good manners?

My personal definition for 'unschooling' will change as Filip grows. At this point, it's pretty straight-forward. If he needs an 'age appropriate' activity, he uses his imagination and makes one up.
If I want him to learn about something new, I show him something real. Like, take him to the farm where we buy our eggs to learn about animals. At this point, he knows nothing about pigs. That's because the farm we go to does not have any. He knows all about chickens, and their behavoir. This isn't because he put the little chicken in the felt chicken coop on a felt board. It's from experience.
If he needs 'stimulation' or just plain entertainment, we watch stuff that appeals to the whole family. Last week, we went to the coffee shop and listened to a live Irish band. I would rather train my kid to be someone interesting enough for me to hang out with, than artificially creating friends for him through many 'playdates'.

Don't get me wrong, I do the 'playdate' thing, and the 'kid movie' thing, and I'm not against storytime (especially since reading is so important). It just does not replace his real education that comes thru example, imagination, and spending our life together.

My New Chair

This is my new chair I got from Ikea. JR had taken over my rocking chair, so I finally got myself a comfy seat. I got a kiddie version of the same chair for Filip, but he seems to prefer mine. If he's not in the chair himself, he's sitting on the arm of the chair while I'm in it.

He also took over my maternity pillow. Now, he sleeps through the night, surrounded by the entire pillow like a nest.

Tomatoes

We did not do a garden this year. JR noticed this tomato plant growing out of our compost heap though. I've been taking my kitchen scraps out here every day for weeks, and never noticed it!

Gross!

Fil decided to read his book about ants while he was sitting on my lap. He started freaking out, and hitting the book. He was screaming "Stop it! Stop it!". I looked over, and he had it turned open to a creepy, full page picture of red ants tending their larvae. He was getting more and more scared and grossed out the longer he looked at it.